Landlords don’t have a good reputation. Of course, there are caring landlords who fix the problems tenants have immediately and even are decent people that you can have a cup of afternoon tea with.

But these kinds of landlords aren’t talked too much about because they are just normal and how they are supposed to be. What people do talk a lot about are the landlords that come to check on their tenants unannounced, who don’t fix mold growing on walls and who increase rent months into the contract. 

Bored Panda got in contact with Dan Wilson Craw, the Deputy Director of Generation Rent, an organisation that is "fighting to stop renters being unfairly evicted from their homes" and who is "fighting for renters to live in safe, decent homes that they can afford." They are the team behind the hashtag #VentYourRent" which is a movement towards change.

We asked why some landlords seem to not care about the people who live in their properties that might be even dangerous. Dan Wilson Craw didn't have a certain answer, "It is hard to know how slum landlords sleep at night, but the rental market attracts unsavoury characters who know that they can make a lot of money from desperate people who will accept very poor housing that rarely gets inspected. If a tenant complains it is easy to force them out with a rent increase or a no-fault eviction, and replace them with someone else who is desperate for a roof over their head."

People who shared their experiences online had their ceiling collapse even though they warned their landlords that it would if nothing was fixed. Some people were constantly visited by their landlords without calling first, and others had to deal with literal mushrooms growing from cracks.

These issues should be fixed by the landlord even if they aren’t legally required to as it’s their property and it would be unfair to put that burden on the tenant because they won’t live there forever. Plus, tenants often pay ridiculous prices for being able to live there so it is reasonable to expect that money to be used to make their homes livable. 

The Deputy Director explained what are the legal requirements for landlords in the UK, "Landlords have to keep properties in a safe condition and must also ensure the property has an Energy Performance Certificate, an annual gas safety certificate and in some cases a licence. When a tenancy starts, the landlord must protect the tenant’s deposit, and provide a How To Rent guide. If any of these things are missing the landlord cannot evict the tenant without providing a reason – though if your home is unsafe you need the council to serve an improvement notice to protect you. Although landlords ordinarily don’t need a reason to evict tenants, they must still follow a legal process. If landlords fail to license their properties, ignore an improvement notice or evict a tenant illegally, the tenant can claim back rent."

Landlords are paid for just owning a property by a person who doesn’t have it. That means they have power over them and because their tenant needs a place to live, they can dictate the rules.

Their main objective is to earn money because landlords may not even have a job and rely on income from their renters. They put the least amount of money into the house after it has been rented to someone so that they can earn more. 

Our interviewee agrees that "Ultimately a lot of the rights that tenants have to a safe home are undermined by the sheer power imbalance in the rental market, where landlords can bully tenants into silence with the threat of a Section 21 notice or an unaffordable rent increase, and the housing shortage means few tenants can simply move somewhere better."

We wondered if there is anything that people should take notice when signing a contract to avoid getting into such homes that are falling apart and the landlord is indifferent to those issues, but turns out, there is not much help from that "Tenancy agreements will rarely include information that will help tenants avoid getting ripped off, or show tenants where to look to understand their rights."

Those nasty landlords are usually not business people who are used to meeting their clients' needs and compromising because at the end of the day, a landlord and a tenant have a business relationship as the former provides a service and the latter buys that service.

Those numbers they see in cash or in their bank accounts may make them even more greedy and forget to budget for maintenance, repairs and other expenses that come with owning a property.

Have you ever been in a similar situation as people who shared their stories? If you have any of your own, feel free to share them in the comments! Also, don’t forget to upvote the stories that you felt were the most unfair and let us know your opinion on how such situations can be prevented.